Meet The New NAICC President: Debra Stroschein
I am honored to lead NAICC into 2024. I have been a contract researcher in California for 30 years, and I have my crop consultant license for California in all categories. I am also a third-generation farmer in southern California. My family has farmed in Blythe since 1943, and I currently farm 1,400 acres—mainly alfalfa. With this experience, I see what agriculture faces today from many perspectives. It is daunting.
As I watched my dad farm over the years and saw all the stresses of farming—examples include managing the risks and constantly trying to deal with things that were out of his control—I learned farming wasn’t easy, but it was something he loved to do. He had a passion for it. American farmers still do the job they love to do with the full passion that my dad had until the day he died.
I inherited that passion and drive. I remember the good and the bad. The alfalfa market in California was at an all-time high in 2022, but so were the inputs. Our farming skills were put to the test. We had to fight the input costs as well as the drought. The other crops in California were at an all-time low in return. Supply chain issues caused materials to not be available, which was another major concern for the farmer. This held true across the U.S.
The same issues remained throughout 2023. Fertilizer prices seemed to level off, and demand lowered a bit, but the drought was still a concern. Consultants were the saving grace. Having an independent crop consultant on your team is valuable. As a grower, I value the assistance the consultant gives me with looking at changes in the laws, researching the correct tools and making sure I have the right product at the right rate and at the right time.
Who knows what 2024 will bring us, but I am glad I have a consultant on my team to help me navigate my way through the rough roads. I know California is supposed to have an El Niño year, so let’s see what Mother Nature throws at us. There is not anything we cannot do. My father always said, “The farmer is not just a farmer today; he or she is a scientist, a computer expert, an engineer, a mechanic, a mathematician and sometimes a psychiatrist.”
We just need the correct tools to handle the challenges and opportunities, and I feel one of them is having an agricultural adviser assist you.
We invite you to attend the 2024 NAICC Annual Meeting and Ag Pro Expo. There, you can network with the crème de la crème of crop consultants, contract researchers and quality assurance professionals from all across the U.S. and the world.
